While reading "Inventing the Cosmo Girl" by Laurie Ouelette, I came to the conclusion that the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, Helen Gurley Brown, had in fact created a subculture in itself with the invention of the Cosmo Girl. "...Cosmopolitan was the first consumer magazine to target single 'girls with jobs' with feature articles, advice columns, budget fashions and advertisements for mainly 'feminine' consumer items..." (Ouellette 119) Cosmopolitan was the first magazine, with Brown at the helm, to target a specific audience that was just emerging with the changing social tides and shape them to whatever she wanted them to be. Cosmopolitan magazine placed an emphasis on female sexuality, and this is what sets it apart from the other female-targeted magazines of the era. "Features on female orgasm, birth control, masturbation, casual sex and sexual experimentation appeared under Brown's editorship, while quizzes with names like 'How Sexy Are You?' " (Ouelette, 123) This direct focus on the working girl was intoxicating and something that had not been done before, which is a direct link to the magazine's overall success. This image is from an issue of Cosmopolitan, and it heralds "The Naughtiest Sex Position".

Cosmo Girl

The article “Inventing the Cosmo Girl” by Laurie Ouellette, analyzes the effects of the advice given to women by Cosmopolitan Magazine and its construction of the “Cosmo Girl”. I am not dedicated reader of Cosmopolitan, but I have been known to skim through an issue or two. I have always been fascinated by the construction of the seemingly “ideal” women the magazine continues to build issue after issue. Ever since Helen Gurley Brown structured the magazine to do this, there has been hardly a single issue that is without advice for women that leads them to be more like the “Cosmo Girl”. Before even reading the article, I could construct the characteristics of the “Cosmo Girl” from just the experience of reading a few issues of the magazine. The “Cosmo Girl” is fashion forward, a “pink-collar” worker, well educated in the art of seduction, Healthy with good diet and exercise habits, confident, involved politically or with “good” causes, and most of all centered on sex. Sex is a major part of Cosmopolitan’s advice and constructions. It was its attention to Sex for women that stirred so much controversy and criticism in its early years of publication. Even now some critics of the publication claim it is to focus on sex. I have attached images of past and present covers of the magazine. The covers usually feature and actress or celebrity that captures some of the essence of the constructed “Cosmo Girl.” Even in the images from the 1970’s the covers were extremely sexualized.